Darkness

Disclaimer- ^picks teeth^ I dun't own nothin' er nobody so git off my property!

And a 1 a 2, a 1, 2, 3, 4—

*

The first thing that rose above Keket's unconsciousness and allowed her senses to detect, was the steady hard thud of a heartbeat. Her sense of smell was the next thing to return. A damp smell filled her nostrils. Something wet, but clean. She slowly blinked and opened her eyes to focus on the color purple. Blinking once more in confusion, she pushed against the thing she was settled on.

"Hey, you're awake. It's about time." Keket nearly jumped out of her own clothes when she heard the deep, rich voice resonate through her ears. She looked up to see that someone was holding her, the color purple she had seen upon waking up had been his shirt, where her face had been buried against his chest. She felt no less confused now than she had then, however, and she had the urge to yelp in surprise at the man's features. The sharp angular contours of his jaw and cheekbones were not the most startling thing, but the fact that he was a curious shade of green caused her some alarm. His ears, which were the largest and most pointy she'd ever seen, made her think of an elf.

"Y-you're the biggest elf I've ever seen…" She declared stupidly, her mind still too groggy to form intelligent conversation topics. The green man rolled his eyes and shook his head, turning his attention away from her. Keket suddenly became aware that she was moving, "What… what the?" She looked around her to see that they were nearly a hundred feet in the air, flying! Rain still spilled from the clouds and cascaded around them, but didn't seem to touch them physically. These facts caused her grip to tighten around the green man's waist and she let out a barely audible yelp.

"Kid, relax…" His calm voice reassured her, "We've been flying for sometime now, and I haven't dropped you yet, so don't worry." Keket dared to look down once again and gulped as she saw the ground (which was looking quite mean and hard) rush by them.

"H-how are you doing this?" She asked as she looked up to run her eyes over this man's strange features once more.

"I'll explain everything that you'd like to know when we get to Capsule Corp. We're gonna make a stop at Korin's Tower, but when we get back, I also want some answers from you, brat. Until then, try to keep your mouth shut, hm?"

"Can I ask just one more question?"

"What is it!?" The man asked irritably.

"Well, um," She stuttered, "I, um… just wanted to know your name."

"My name is Piccolo, now shut up for the love of Kami. I liked you better when you were unconscious!" The man named Piccolo growled at her. Keket winced at his sharp hurtful tone, upset that their conversation hadn't gone as well as she had hoped. Forcing herself not to look down, she rested her head against his chest once more to be comforted by the steady throb of his heart. Anything to cover up the terrible noises of the storm. As they flew, Keket wondered what Korin's Tower was, though she dare not ask in fear of making Piccolo angry again, how this man had found her, why he had saved her, and just what the hell was going on. She voiced none of these queries, just focused on breathing deeply in and out to calm her nerves. A technique that she found had worked in some of the scariest moments in her life. And there had certainly been an abundance in those to learn from, she mused.

*

Piccolo lowered his ki and allowed the barrier that surrounded the child and he to dissipate as he landed on Korin's Tower. The fat, small, white cat was no where to be seen. Which probably meant that he was downstairs, sleeping, eating, or doing…cat things. Piccolo groaned. This was all Vegeta's fault. If the stupid saiyan didn't train so hard, he wouldn't be up here hunting down senzu beans. The girl he carried stirred once more, their first conversation hadn't gone well, and he wasn't looking forward to the next.

"A-are we there? I mean… are we at Korin's Tower?" She repeated the word she had heard him use.

"Yes, we are. I want you to sit here while I go look for someone, understand?" He asked, setting her down carefully on the floor.

"A-all right."

"Good, I'll be right back," with that, Piccolo walked to the stairs and peered down them, hoping he wouldn't have to venture into Korin's room. He wasn't particularly comfortable invading someone else's space, but he had no choice, this was a life or death situation.

"Korin?" He called tentatively down the stairs… No reply.

"Eek! Mister!! Help!" Piccolo whirled back around at the sound of the girl's high-pitched shriek. Once he realized that she was not in danger, he nearly laughed out loud. Yaijorobe stood staring down at the girl, scaring her half to death. 'And who wouldn't be scared of that face' Piccolo thought with a dry chuckle.

"Relax kid, he isn't gonna hurt you." Piccolo reassured her. Since Korin didn't seem to be around, Yaijorobe seemed the next obvious choice.

"What are you doing here anyway? And who is this?" The fat 'samurai' demanded of Piccolo.

"I'm here for senzu beans and this is a new acquaintance of mine," he answered, motioning to the girl.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Hey Korin isn't here right now. He's out visiting or something. I forget. Anyway, there are some spare senzu beans I can let you borrow. Just don't waste 'em all!" Yaijorobe tossed the small bag of beans to Piccolo and pointed to the shivering child, "And take your brat with ya!" Piccolo narrowed his eyes at the samurai's rudeness and scooped the girl into his arms.

"Can… we go now?" She whispered in his ear, "I don't like that guy."

"Yeah, me neither. Let's go." Piccolo closed another ki barrier around them and leapt off the edge of the tower.

"HEY! Don't I even get a thank you!?" They both heard Yaijorobe's voice echoing after them. Neither acknowledged the fact that they had heard and continued on back to Capsule Corp.

*

"Hey, Mister? I mean…um…Piccolo?" Keket asked tentatively as the ground blurred once more beneath them. She wasn't totally comfortable with flying, but at least the storm was dissipating.

"What is it?" Piccolo didn't take his attention away from the ground as he began his descent. Capsule Corp. was in view.

"Well, um…Wh-what do you plan on doing with me?"

"What's that supposed to mean? I plan to take you to Capsule Corp. Find out where you're from and take you home." He replied as the ground came ever closer.

"B-but… I don't wanna-" She was cut off by Piccolo's growl.

"Didn't I already say that we could discuss this at Capsule Corp.?" He looked down at her with an annoyed expression.

"I-I'm sorry…" She whispered and shut her eyes tightly as they landed. Realizing that there was no danger, she opened them again and saw a huge building with Capsule Corporation written over the top.

"Wow…" was her awed murmur.

"All right kid, this is where the ride ends." Piccolo sat placed her on the ground where she wobbled on her still unsteady feet. The door suddenly burst open and a woman with blue hair ran out in hysterics.

"Piccolo, I think he's gotten worse! Did you get the senzus?" The woman swiped at her tears and looked up at Piccolo hopefully.

"Yes," He tossed her the bag of Senzus and she ran back inside without another word. Piccolo looked down at Keket and motioned for her to enter the house. She followed without question. Her eyes widened a degree as she took in the sheer size of the huge building. Keket had never seen such a large dwelling before. She stood politely by the door, not wanting to invade someone's home. The woman she had seen earlier ran back to Piccolo, she was slightly calmer now.

"H-he's all right…" She declared with obvious relief. Keket wondered who this 'he' could be, but she didn't ask. The woman suddenly noticed her, "Hey Piccolo, who's this cutey?" She asked with a smile and bent down to Keket's height.

"Just a brat I found. Don't know what the hell she was doing out in the woods. Kids pop up in the strangest places…"

"Well, hey sweetie. What's your name?"

"Keket…" She whispered shyly, "Wh-what's yours?"

"My name is Bulma. What are doing with Piccolo, huh?" Keket did not answer, unsure of what to say. Bulma smiled at her again anyway and stood up.

"Piccolo, do you know where she's from? Shouldn't we get her home?"

"We were just about to discuss that actually," he answered and looked down at Keket.

"C'mon into the living room then. It'll be more comfortable there," Bulma took Keket's tiny hand in her own and led her to the living room with Piccolo following behind.

*

A/N- sorry, this was a boring chapter _. I'm just not good with stuff like this. As I said before, I like Action/Adventure type things. But I'm determined to write this thing out, even if I get 0 reviews. Though it would be nice to receive a little feedback. (nudge nudge, hint hint) Well, there will be more Action when the bad guy is introduced, so no worries ^_~ Thanks for reading thus far and review if you feel the need…